The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-10-19

dertake to produce them at home.
Calico at five cents a yard, domestic al
eighs, and osanburgs at ten, and other
common cloths, once made at home, are
80 cheap that we cannot or will not
make them; so of many other things
mate by ren-as axe handles, hames.
collars, single-trees, wagon-bodies, plows,
wagon axles, and wae ons themselves.
All this cfeapness Is very well, but for
It"e sad fact, that we have not found
other suit be employment for our wo-
me L and Our men, / never thought of
tbs till my ate ion was called to It by a
very intelligent friend, and prudent man,
the Hon. John G. Lucas, of Kosciusko.
But more of this hereafter.
Another great cause of our depression
is, that
OUR AGRICULTURAL METHODS
ale both more expensive and less efficient
tan they ought to be. We use none or
but little OF the labor-ssving imple-
ments of husbandry. We employ more
human labor-the most expensive of all
labor-fo- the same results than any
other people in the world. 1t is wasted ;
it is made to compete with animal labor
| As l think this is big truth, | will
somewhat enlarge on it. With our
present tools and appliances, a man
| will ordinarily cultivate fifteen acres
ten in c1tton and five in corn. With prop
er appliances he ought, with but little
extra labor in hoeing, cultivate twice
that amo ut.
| Next, we cultivate land in a way that
| it produces a bale of cotton to four
acres sometimes fve), and from seven
| to fifteen bushels of corn to the acre
| Whoever does this, and does no more,
| will be pauper all his days. Next we
| confne our agriculture mostly to those
products which demand most of human
1abo :, as cotton and corn; emitting, in
large degree, grain, the grasses and
stock, which require but little of hui
| man labor. Now here are the causes,
in my judgment.
WHAT is THE REMEDY?
can tell you the remedy in general
terms; but | cannot show you the very
path we must tread and how to walk in
it safely and wisely. If l see a sick
man, / can tell you that he needs medi-
cine; but if you ask me what particular
medicine he needs, am ignorant; for /
never learned either pathology or thera-
peutics. So l can tell you, the farmers
are very sick and growing worse every
day, and that medicine is needed-more
fertilizers, better cultivation; more of
animal labor as substitute for human
labor; but | am not an educated farmer;
therefore / cannot tell you the precise
way IN which these necessary operations
ought to be performed, so as in the end
the new system will be more economical
| and more remunerated than the old.
Though raised on farm and once
familiar with most farming operations,
like most other farmers / got my ideas
from the old system, when we cultivated
rich, fresh lands. The last furrow /
ever run, was on land which would then
produce + ar bale of cotton to the
acre, or thirty bushels of corn; and the
same land now would not produce more
than bale of cotton to four or five
acres, and corn to the amount of ten or
fifteen bushels. For, you will remem-
ber, Gas most Carroll county people do),
that | went into another business
wherein money made by farmers was
translated into the pockets of the nom
producers. However the farmer in
those days had more left for his own
use than he seems to have now.
Whoever will travel over Mississippi
as l have done, will see for himself, the
waste and deterioration of our once fer
tile lands. In fact we are now in that
unhappy era through which all old
countries have passed, wherein we find
our lands exhausted, and have as yet
not learned how to restore them, econo-
mically and quickly. We may learn
something of the methods of restoration
by seeing
and, also, by looking little into differ
ent parts of our own State. We have
passed the time when mere muscle and
personal energy alone will secure sue
cess. There must be a union of intelli-
gence and physical force; as expressed
by one of the students at the A. & NJ.
College last summer-a marriage of
Drawn and brain. The intelligence /
refer to is not the general intelligence
and culture which makes one an agree
able and entertaining companion, but a
knowledge, thorough and complete, of
the forces of nature which help and
which also sometimes counteract the
operations of the farmer, and the
methods best adapted to the cultivation
and preservation of the soil. Germany,
France, Italy, Great Britain (not to
mention other European countries),
have been cultivated for near 200O years,
yet the land is just as good as it was, and
in many instances better than, when the
pillow first disturbed it. You, and every
intelligent farmer in Mississippi, will
agree with me, when l say, that if our
present system in Mississippi is con-
tinued for 200 years, much less 1000,
the State will be incapable of support
ing population of one to the square
mile. How have these countries preserv-
ed and even increased the productive
ness of the soil, so that now every square
foot of their arabic territory is made
to produce even more than ever before?
1t Is due to the marriage of "brawn and
brain"-muscle and intelligence.
SPECIAL AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.
In Europe agricultural science is not
only taught in special agricultural
schools, but is the subject of regular
instruction in all their other schools. In
Germany arboriculture Cor tree culture)
and horticulture are taught in all Nor
NAL schools; and the same is true of
France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria,
Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands;
and in addition, special schools for ag-
rlculture are established in every state
and kingdom. In A ustria there is an I'M
perial Collea of Agr;cr .ure, and ia ag-
ricultural evening schools. Besides, there
are 50 other special agricultural sch ools,
and agriculture is also taught in 212S
elementary schools; tree-culture in 4O34
bee-culture in 1886; and silk culture in
862. In connection with the elementary
schools there are 3215 orchards, and
4037 gardens; and there is a farm to
each of the SO agricultural schools. |
Hungary has four special schools of ag-
riculture. Little Belgium has four of |
such schools. In the Netherlands there
are two. In little Denmark there is the |
most famous Agricultural College in |
Europe, and there are special schools all |
over the little state--100 10 yer agricul- |
tural schools, called Farmers High
Schools In France there are three
kinds of agricultural schools-the farm |
schools, the departmental schools, and |
the National Agricultural Institute. OF |
these farm schools there are 43, and |
departmental schools. The National |
Agricultural Institute has IL Professors. |
Besides this, there is State Depart |
ment of Agriculture, in which is >ex-
pended over $5,000,O00 year to aid and |
advance agriculture. In Germany there
are over $50 schools of agriculture, hor-
ticulture, tree-culture and vine-culture,
and each of these has farms, gardens,
etc, attached. Prussia, also, has six
higher agricultural academies or col |
leges, forty-six agricultural schools, and |
twenty-nine schools of tree and vine
culture. / might go on through the |